Title: Knight Life

Author: Luna

Feedback: Loved and appreciated…send it to ambersgrrl@yahoo.com

Archive: Luna’s Night Moves, Tainted Fiction, and Full Moon Romper Room…anyone else please, just ask.

Fandom: Ring of Honor/TNA/Wrestling

Rating: NC-17 (What else would you expect from me?)

Type: Fantasy

Pairings: Too many to list…just read to find out who’s with who.

Disclaimer: I have not now nor have I ever been associated with Ring of Honor or TNA.  All the characters that you recognize belong to Ring of Honor, TNA, or themselves with the exception of the ones I’ve created.  Nothing is being gained from this except a need to pass the time.

Summary: They’re tired of being lonely wandering from town to town and living for centuries in the company of their chosen brethren.  Now they’re going to do something about it.  Will fate play kindly with them or will they be left in misery?

Author’s Note: This is going to be slightly AU.  Please people, if that bothers you do us both a favor and STOP READING NOW!!!

Anything else: Many thanks need to go to my loving sister who held my hand as I worked out the kinks in this idea.  My other sister, the one god forgot to give me at birth, much love goes out to her for her most excellent beta work and all the time she spends holding my hand.  You girls ROCK!!!!

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Chapter Six

 

Aries sapphire eyes watched his friends a grin tugging at the corners of his mouth.  Katrina and Punk were snipping at each other in a way that suggested there was some underlying sexual tension between the two of them.  They were turned cattycorner so that they could face each other as well as watch the rest of the people at the table.  Their eyes were alight with a passion that both seemed eager to ignore.

 

Ki and Mya seemed likely to combust at any moment.  The young man’s hand was curled possessively on her hip.  Her seemingly calm acceptance of that fact gave Austin pause.  It was as if there was something bigger going on between the two of them that wasn’t as readily apparent to the rest of them.  Aries noticed that more than one young man had been sent the opposite direction when they got a look at the nearly feral expression on Ki’s face.  Mya had seemed oblivious though whether or not she really was, was anyone’s guess.

 

Austin almost laughed out right seeing Lance tap dance with the brunette of the group, Martina.  Her bright blue eyes danced merrily as if she knew exactly what was going on with the big man.  Her smiles were wide and welcoming a fact that had Hoyt scowling at more than one overeager young man.  She leaned in close to him pulling him down a bit so that she could be heard over the loud throbbing beat of the music.  When Lance straightened up the expression on his face could only be called smug.  Aries didn’t know what the young woman had said but he had a pretty good idea.

 

Daniels and the blonde, Laney, were talking quietly their heads close together.  Those two worried him for some reason that he couldn’t name.  He knew there was something about the blonde that called to the elder of their group.  He wanted to discount the feeling of unease churning in his gut but couldn’t.  No one in the group wanted Christopher to find happiness any more than Austin did.  He just had reservations about what was happening here tonight.

 

Leaning back in his seat he turned to the young woman next to him.  Her cerulean eyes shone brightly with amusement.  He watched as she tipped back the bottle of Corona taking a long swallow.  His eyes were trained on the steady throbbing beat of her pulse.  Need shot through him clenching his stomach painfully.  It stole the breath from his long dead lungs.

 

He tore his eyes away from the lovely image with some considerable effort.  He tried to focus on the latest round of insults that Kat and Punk were throwing at each other.  It didn’t hold his attention for long as their words were a constant stream of meaningless babble.  Before long his gaze returned to the petite blonde sitting next to him.

 

Paige’s blue eyes were watching him warily as if some inner instinct told her what he really was.  Aries studied her for a long moment wondering if that was indeed the case.  It wouldn’t have been the first time some kind of intuition had warned a girl off him even if she had seemed friendly enough at the beginning of the evening.  He sighed running a hand through his hair scratching the back of his neck in an irritated fashion.

 

She watched him watch her as she continued to drink from the bottle of beer.  She could see the thoughts chase across his face.  Briefly she wondered if he knew that his face gave him away or if it was only her years as a people watcher that made it so obvious.  In either case it didn’t really matter because she knew that something about her reaction had upset him.  That confused her because it seemed like they had been getting along fairly well up until this point.  She wondered if there was some sort of guy code that forbids them to make any sense to a rational person.

 

Austin rarely, if ever, had to worry about his control.  It was flawless.  That was why the gnawing ache he felt clawing at his stomach disturbed him so much.  He had never before wanted to taste someone as badly as he did the blonde next to him.  His fingers tightened around.  The bottle the glass whined slightly a sure sign it was just about to break; yet he could feel that calculated control slipping through his fingers like grains of sand.  His eyes were a touch wide as the last shaky restraints on his hunger tore free.

 

Paige knew that something was off about the young man sitting next to her the moment he turned towards her.  His eyes had a power to them they had lacked only moments before.  As she stared into those jewel toned eyes she could feel herself falling into that crystalline gaze with no will to stop herself.  It took her a moment to realize what she was seeing wasn’t in her mind but his.

 

It was hellishly cold and the thick woolen cloak he wore did nothing to keep him warm.  His thoughts were singularly focused on getting home.  There was something very important that he needed to be doing though what it was escaped him.  He couldn’t remember where he’d been or what he had been doing only moments before.  The only thought in his mind was to get home.  Home was safety though why he needed to be safe eluded him.

 

Placing one foot in front of the other he kept moving trying to beat out the storm that was dogging his every step.  The farm shimmered in the distance and he felt a small measure of relief that he was so close.  His steps never slowed; in fact they sped up the closer the cozy little cottage came.  Without really realizing it he was running by the time his boots hit the bottom step.  He stopped a moment trying to recall why he felt this driving urgency to be indoors.  Night had only just fallen maybe an hour before.  He surely couldn’t have been gone that long, could he?

 

All those confusing thoughts were pushed aside as he stood panting in front of the door.  His fingers gripped the frame little piece of jagged wood piercing his skin.  He barely noticed the pain as he reach for the doorknob.  Predictably it was locked; swearing he kicked the door.  Searching his pockets failed to produce the key that would let him in.  Fear was clawing at the back of his throat choking the life from him.

 

Panicking he pounded on the door knowing that once inside he would be safe, though he was still unsure what exactly he would be safe from.  Footsteps hurried to the door.  The lace curtain moved as the person on the other side checked to see who was out there.  Gradually the door eased open showing a young woman of maybe sixteen.  Her bright blue eyes looked haunted as if she were seeing a ghost.

 

From behind the girl an older version appeared her sable hair streaked through with gray.  “Maddie hun, who’s at the door,” the woman asked her eyes going past the young woman to the man standing in the doorway for the first time.  The woman’s eyes went impossibly wide as she stared at the figure clinging to her doorframe.  Nerveless fingers dropped the plate she had been drying.

 

That sound awoke something ugly within the young man that until now had lain dormant.  His cerulean eyes burned brightly as he shifted his hand on the doorframe to grasp the girl’s.  Those dazzling jewel toned orbs bored into the unsuspecting young woman and he felt her will crumbling under the weight of his gaze.  “Invite me in sweetie,” he urged in a low voice.

 

Without being aware of what she was doing the young woman stepped back from the door her fingers curled around his pulling him along.  Her voice was flat and monotone as she said, “Come in, won’t you?”

 

From down the hall the woman called out, “Maddie, no!”  But it was already too late as the thing crossed the threshold into the house. The closing of the door was an ominous sound as if the lid on a coffin were falling shut.  It sent a chill down her spine.  “He can’t be here,” her mind screamed, “he’s dead!  We buried him three days ago!”  His lifeless form had been found by the road leading back to their little farm.  If it had been a crushing blow to see him like that it was even worse now knowing that he was not the same sweet gentle boy she had given birth to.

 

His dark haunting gaze turned to her then as if sensing her thoughts.  She never had time to move much less scream as those too sharp teeth pierced her skin unerringly finding the vein that would give him what he needed most.  As her heart began to slow he lowered her to the floor brushing back the burnished strands of hair almost reverently.  His hunger only partially sated he turned on the young woman who was still frozen with shock.

 

“Maddie,” he called his fingers beckoning her closer.  Her wide frightened eyes went from his bloodstained fingers to the woman lying on the floor behind his back to him again.  “Madison,” he said forcefully commanding her attention.  He wondered distantly how he knew her name but none of that mattered as she took a slow cautious step towards him.  His senses were filled with the sound of her too rapid heartbeat and the blood rushing under the fragile layer of skin.

 

As with the older woman he attacked without giving her a chance to make a sound.  His strike was as swift and deadly as any snake.  The life giving substance filled the gnawing ache that had clawed at him since he had found himself beside that grave.  The girl in his arms gave a gurgling cough and he laid her gently beside the older woman.  His touch was soft as if he owed them at least that after giving him so much in return.

 

The creak of the opening door brought him out of his reverie.  There framed in the soft light was one of the most alluring women he had ever seen in his young life.  Dressed simply in a barmaid’s clothes her very presence filled him with a sense of revulsion.  One corner of her mouth twitched as she took in the scene laid out before her.   “I was beginning to worry when I couldn’t find you,” she said in a husky voice.

 

Austin stared at the woman before him and couldn’t understand why she didn’t run screaming from the house.  He didn’t know what to think about all that had happened.  His confusion was a palpable thing and it was beginning to choke him.  His eyes went from the woman lounging negligently in the doorway to the two women lying beside him.  Slowly the dawning horror of whom and what he had done broke over him.  His anguished cry could be heard for miles though none would come to investigate until after the sun rose the following morning.

 

“What have you done to me, witch,” he demanded rising to tower over the woman who had changed him and his world completely.

 

“Me,” she asked with feigned innocence.  “I haven’t done anything…here.  This was all your doing.  I had no hand in it whatsoever.”

 

He didn’t think he just reacted with all the anger and pain that had built up in him.  He lashed out at the woman striking her across the face, felling her.  When her emerald eyes stared up at him he saw real fear in them.  “Good,” he thought maliciously.  He advanced upon her his wildly churning emotions giving him added strength.

 

As Austin neared her she stood bearing her fangs to hiss at him angrily.  She had only meant to salvage this situation and hopefully turn it to her advantage.  She belatedly realized that she had made a mistake in trying to manipulate him.  He had been a strong willed man in life; death had not changed him.  However she was not willing to go down without a fight and she hadn’t lived this long to be killed by some novice fresh from the grave not even him.  She launched herself at him.  She was caught completely off guard when he sidestepped her using her own momentum to send her crashing into the side of the house.

 

His sapphire eyes burned in the darkness surrounding the deadly pair.  He may not remember much of what had happened to him.  Still he had pieced enough together to know that she was the reason his beloved mother and sister were dead at his hands.  It was that burning anger and self-loathing that he used against the thing before him.

 

She came at him again and this time he caught her easily by the throat.  Her eyes were wide showing a lot of white.  Her fingers clawed at his appendages and face trying to break free of his iron grip.  As she was struggling he noticed something strange.  She kept avoiding his eyes.  Curious despite the fatal outcome should he get too distracted he forced her to meet his searching gaze.  What he saw there staggered him.  Within her eyes he had everything he needed to not only survive but to make others of his kind.  It was the last that sickened him.  “I will have your name before you die witch,” he growled into her terrified face.

 

“You will have nothing from me but the curse of what you are,” she managed to choke out.  She was trying, in vain, to keep up her false bravado.  She knew that this was a dangerous game but with big risks came big rewards.  If she could just turn this around she knew that she would have him…always.

 

Angered beyond measure he threw away from him causing her to fall through the railing around the porch.  The wood groaned loudly before breaking apart under her weight.  In an ironic twist of fate a piece of the deadly material managed to find one of their few weaknesses.  It pierced her heart leaving her all but helpless before the rage filled young man.  Her green eyes watched him warily as he approached her slowly.

 

The reality of what he was now was beginning to sink in.  It brought a fresh wave of pain along with the memory of what he’d already done because of it.  “Why me,” he asked her in an agonized voice sinking to his knees.  He wasn’t ready to deal with the idea of his own death.  Yet he now had to contend with the murder, for there could be no other word for it, of his mother and sister.

 

She understood all too well what the young man was going through.  She had been down that road as well.  Knowing she was helpless even as another part of her fought against that she swallowed.  The last of her anger flowed away leaving only the cold hard fact that she was going to die.  She owed him the truth because he hadn’t asked for this, not like she had.

 

Closing her emerald eyes she gripped his hand trying to make him understand.  “Because you were the only one to treat me with kindness,” she forced out.  That was what had cemented him as her choice for companion.  He hadn’t looked down upon her because of her poor parentage or because she worked at the inn.  “And because you were the only one strong enough to do what I couldn’t,” she whispered brokenly blood leaking from the corner of her mouth.

 

That confession broke down the last barrier he had against the onslaught of emotions threatening to engulf him.  The last real tears he had flowed down his cheeks as he cried for the loss of his family, the woman slowly dying on the ground beside him, and his lost humanity.  He sat on the frozen ground crying for things that had already passed and for things yet to come.  Reluctantly he rose from his position and with one last longing glance at the house walked away into the night.

 

It had been a lifetime since he’d last relived those haunting memories.  Yet the pain of the night still lingered, ate at him.  It was that night that led to his famed iron willed control.  He never wanted to feel the kind of devastating guilt that had resulted from that night so long ago.  The others may laugh at him for his obsessive need to keep a lid on his darker nature but it was all that kept him from truly becoming a monster.

 

Paige stared at him shock clearly etched upon her pixyish features.  Her mouth opened then closed blue eyes searching his face before dropping to the scared wooden surface.  She folded her hands on the table the knuckles whites.  After a few long tense moments she lifted her head again meeting those questioning blue eyes.  She wasn’t freaked about finding that vampires existed.  What did freak her out was that she had seen how he had been created.  She may not know much but that should have damn near impossible.  She was dying to know more but however curious she may be she wasn’t going to put her newfound family in harm’s way.

 

The blonde locked eyes with first Katrina then Martina glancing past them towards the exit.  The two young women nodded and began ushering the other girls towards the door.  Mya and Laney were a little upset to be leaving already but seeing the expression on both Kat and Marti’s face they didn’t argue.  They knew that the reason would be explained soon enough.

 

Christopher noticed the interaction and shot a curious glance at Aires who shook his head in response, having only a slight idea why the girls were making a sudden and hasty retreat.   A silent message went out to the others and had them following the girls out of the club.  The least they could do was make sure the girls made it safely back to their car.

 

Paige watched them walk away before turning back to the young man at her elbow.  “We need to talk,” she told him wrapping her fingers around his arm following the path the others had cleared for them.  Tonight, she was going to get some answers and no one was leaving until she was satisfied.